Mark Zuckerberg announced last night that Facebook has brought on “key members” of the staff of Ascenta, a small company based in southwestern England, to develop high-altitude solar-powered drones that could help supply internet access to remote areas. The value of the deal—which didn’t involve acquiring the firm, but made at least some of its team Facebook employees—was under $20 million. That’s a substantially lower price tag than the $60 million being bandied about earlier this month when TechCrunch reported that Facebook was in talks to buy Titan Aerospace, a maker of similar drones.
